Everyday Life in Ireland

I'm Blue Da Ba Dee

Darren sat outside the Galway Gala, waiting for the elderly shop keep to be done with picking clothes for Clodagh. He wondered what kind of clothes she would wear. Images of her in different types of clothing flashed in his mind, some of them a tad more revealing than others. He shook his head to get rid of those thoughts. "Well I'm sure whatever she wears will look great." He said to himself.

"I'm glad you think that." Darren jumped slightly and turned. The old woman was standing outside the door. "I think I have done quite well, if I do say so myself." She chuckled, going back into the shop and gesturing for Darren to follow her inside.

Darren went inside and his eyes fell on Clodagh, who was still sitting in her wheel chair, but was currently wearing a long light blue dress, with small white swirls near the bottom of it. "So, what do you think?" Clodagh asked shyly, holding up part of her dress.

Darren's answer was "Hamana hamana hamana." Darren then shook his head and smiled at her. "It looks great." And it was a true answer, the dress suited her quite well. It clashed nicely with her red hair.

Clodagh smiled and said "Thanks, I've never really worn anything like this before." She patted the dress. "It feels weird, but nice." She lifted up her tail, and found that she could only barely see the tip of her fins. "Feels strange not seeing my tail."

"You'll get used to it." Darren said rubbing her head softly. He then turned to the shop keeper. "So how much do I owe you?" He said, his hand reaching into his pocket.

The woman checked a tag that was still on Clodagh's dress. "Well this dress is only €20." Darren nodded, that was fair enough. "But, she wanted four of them." Darren looked up confused, then gazed at Clodagh, who was blushing and trying to hide behind her hands.

"I don't mind that it's a bit expensive" He said, causing Clodagh to peek through her hands "But why did you get four of the same dress?" He asked laughing. Clodagh didn't really have an answer for the question.

"Um, I just really like the dress." Darren sighed but laughed. He took out four blue notes and handed them to the woman. "Thanks so much." Clodagh said smiling. The woman hadn't Darren a large bag that contained all of the dresses that he had just purchased.

They said goodbye to the woman and headed out of the shop. Darren was looking around thinking of where to bring Clodagh. His eyes spied a green circle. "Hey Clodagh?" He began, causing Clodagh to look up from her dress and stare at Darren. "Is your digestive tract more like a seals or a humans?"

The question threw Clodagh for a spin. "Um, if you're asking if we can eat human foods, then yes we can, but we can also eat stuff you can't, like raw fish." She licked her fingers slightly. She must have been tasting the fish that Molly had given her. "There's not much we can't eat. Well, we're mainly carnivores, but we are able to eat small amounts of vegetables and stuff."

"Good to know." Darren said, as they stopped outside a shop with a green circle above it. Clodagh looked up at the circle.

"Stertbooks coffee?" She questioned. Darren nodded and pushed open the glass door, so that he could wheel Clodagh in easily. Clodagh took it in all at once. The smell was odd, it was similar to the tea that Darren had made, but at the same time, a bit different. The walls were all cream with strange drawings here and there. There seemed to be an unusual niche of people, all of them wearing hats and glasses. Although there was one person in the corner on something that looked like what Darren was on earlier, and there was a furious clicking coming from it.

"Two cookies and two hot chocolates." Darren's voice brought Clodagh back to her senses. When she looked at Darren she saw him hand over another blue piece of paper. The woman who he gave the note to was wearing a sort of green apron and had a different hat to the other people who were there. After the woman handed back Darren some small pieces of metal, he brought Clodagh over to a small round table.

"Um, what's a coffee?" Clodagh asked, seeing as it was written on the name of the sign. Darren pulled a chair out of the way so he could push Clodagh where the chair was.

"A coffee, is something that you won't be having." Darren chuckled slightly. Clodagh looked very confused. "Sorry, it was a bad joke. A coffee is like tea, but, not as good." Darren said this part in a whisper, which caused Clodagh to laugh. "Besides, I got you something better than coffee and tea." He smiled widely. Clodagh was about to ask what it is but she heard he name being called.

"Aaron and Clodagh?" Darren shook his head slightly, but got up to go back to the girl. Darren came back holding two strange cups, and two round things. Clodagh looked up at Darren oddly.

"But the girl called a different name?" She asked, extremely confused, which caused Darren to laugh slightly.

"Yeah, the people here always write the names wrong," He looked down at his cup "ah, see." Darren pointed to his cup, which had his name on it, but the D was almost unreadable, leaving the rest of the cup saying Arren.

Clodagh looked down at her own cup, and saw that it had her name written correctly on it. "But mines ok?" She looked up at Darren, who just shrugged and drank from the cup. Clodagh looked at her cup. There was a white lid on it, so she couldn't see the liquid inside. There was a small hole however, and when she peeked inside of it she could see a darkish brown liquid.

Clodagh pointed at the small hole and looked at Darren, who nodded in response. She put her lips against the cup and tipped it up. It had a similar temperature to the tea, but it tasted completely different. She put the cup down and licked her lips, deciding whether she liked it or not. Darren raised an eyebrow at her confused expression. "What is it?" she asked.

"It's called hot chocolate." Darren replied, taking the cap off his cup to show her the contents. Clodagh was more surprised that he could take it off. Clodagh looked down at her own cup and tried to take the lid off it. "Maybe it's better if you just leave it the way it is." Darren suggested, placing the lid back on his cup.

"It tastes nice, but different." Clodagh said, taking another sip of it. "I don't mind it, but I like your tea better." She said smiling. This caused Darren to blush.

"M-My tea's nothing special, I just make it carefully." He replied, taking another sip of his drink to hide the blush. Clodagh smiled and looked at the other thing that Darren asked for. It was round, and had small squares of a brown similar to what's in her cup.

"What are they?" Clodagh asked, picking one of them up. Darren put his drink down and looked at what she was holding.

"Oh, they're cookies, try it." He replied smiling. Clodagh shrugged her shoulders and bit into the cookie. Her eyes flashed as if she had reached nirvana. "Oh dear." Darren thought to himself. Clodagh took another large bite of it.

"It's soo gooood." She said contently. She shoved the rest of the cookie into her mouth and chewed loudly. She swallowed and let out a sigh. "So nice." Clodagh's eyes fell on the other cookie, and then locked with Darren's eyes. In a flash Clodagh's arm reached to grab it, but fell short by a second.

"This is my one." Darren said, holding the cookie slightly above the table so it would give him time to move his hand if Clodagh made another grab for it. Clodagh frowned slightly, and then racked her head for a solution as to how he could make him give her the cookie. A lightbulb went off above her head.

"If you let me have the cookie," she began, causing Darren to look at her, "I'll mate with you." She said sultrily. Darren went into complete shock.

"Wha-What kind of compromise is that!?" He half shouted. However, in his state of shock, he dropped the cookie, which gave Clodagh ample opportunity to take it for her own. She held it in both hands and nibbled on it. Darren realising he had just been defeated, slumped and sipped from his hot chocolate.

"Sorry." Clodagh said, sticking her tongue out. "It was just too good." Darren rolled his eyes and nodded, taking another sip from his drink. "I was serious though." Darren then spat out said drink.

Darren coughed violently. "Y-you don't need to follow up on that." He said, beating his chest to stop coughing. Clodagh just smiled and bit down on the cookie again. Darren blinked, for a second he thought he saw, disappointment, no, he must be imagining things.

After Clodagh finished her cookie, they left the café and went back to the car. "Thanks for today Darren." Clodagh smiled at Darren as he lifted her into the car. "I've never done anything like this before, and it was nice to try human foods." Darren laughed, he wouldn't really consider a cookie to be the pinnacle of human food, that title belonged to pizza.

"Well I'm glad you enjoyed it." Darren said, closing the door after clicking her seatbelt in. He got in the driver's side and continued. "We can come here whenever you need to, we just won't be getting cookies that often." He said slyly, gently elbowing her. Clodagh blushed at the statement. He wasn't sure whether it was at her 'compromise' or her way of eating it.

"Anyway, let's get home." Darren smiled at Clodagh, who returned it, still blushing a bit. Once they were out of the town Clodagh rolled down the window again. The rushing air made her feel like she was back at the Causeway, with the howling winds blowing in her face. The only difference was that the wind wasn't salty, which wasn't really a bad thing.

Thinking about her old home made her injury twinge. She had almost forgotten about the injury with all of the fun she'd been having with Darren. A small tear escaped the corner of her eye, which didn't go unnoticed by Darren. "Hey, are you ok?" He asked, trying to focus on both the road and Clodagh.

Clodagh nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine, it's just my tail." It was as close to the truth as Clodagh would let him know. She didn't want him thinking she didn't want to stay with him. "When do you think it'll get better?" She asked, looking over at Darren. Darren wondered that himself.

"Well, seeing as you only got patched up yesterday, I'd say, maybe a week or two, depending if the cut gets infected." Clodagh frowned. "But don't worry, I doubt it will happen, I cleaned you up almost right away." Darren smiled, trying to get Clodagh to do the same. It worked, and she did indeed have a bright smile.

"You're right, thanks again Darren." Clodagh leaned over in her seat to hug him. Darren allowed it, even though he couldn't really hug back because he was driving. "I can't wait to heal up, we can go swimming together." Clodagh said happily. Darren nodded.

"Yeah, it'd be cool to swim with someone from the sea." Darren smiled at Clodagh, who giggled and wiggled happily in her seat. They pulled into Darren's driveway, got out of the car, and went about their day.

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